An American theatre company will perform at City Hall as a fundraiser for cancer charity PALS this week.The play, ‘Camwood on the Leaves’, is by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka.It will be directed by American Niyi Coker and performed by the Circuit Theatre Players of Missouri, and a handful of Bermudians.Mr Soyinka was born in Nigeria in 1934. He is a prolific writer of plays, poems, books and essays including ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’, ‘Kongi’s Harvest’ and ‘Madmen and Specialists’. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986.“‘Camwood on the Leaves’ is one of those plays that most people overlook,” said Dr Coker. “It is a very powerful play. It is about conflict of indigenous tradition over Christianity.”He thought the play would have resonance in Bermuda with the community’s strong Christian roots.“I know you have a lot of people there who are Christian, and I also know that you have a lot of African Bermudians who look to cultures in Africa as a form of identity, as a heritage. With Bermuda’s strong understanding of colonisation it should be a very emphatic story to many. Soyinka wrote this story in the 1950s around the point where Nigeria was still a colonised country.”He said in most stories, it is the older generation who want to hold onto their customs and heritage and the younger generation who want to try something new, but in ‘Camwood on The Leaves’, it is actually the younger generation who want to hold on to the old ways.“In this script it is the father who is holding onto Christianity and the imposition of an outside religion,” said Dr Coker. “The son who is the one who is looking for the ways of his ancestors. This is one of the many conflicts in the play.”Mr Soyinka experienced this conflict himself as his father was an Anglican minister.Dr Coker, who studied under Mr Soyinka, staged a play in Bermuda in 2006, and was a guest speaker at the African Diaspora Conference in 2010.“This is the first time we have taken this particular play overseas,” said Dr Coker. “We have props but this is going to be a stylised performance and it is going to be almost avante garde. Originally, this was a radio play in the 1950s. When you read the script it doesn’t call for sets. We have adapted it for the stage, but it is more of a suggestive setting than a set. We use lights a lot to demark areas. It is a very intriguing play, and the audience will leave very satisfied.”‘Camwood on the Leaves’ runs Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Tickets $30,are available online, www.bdatix.bm, and at All Wrapped Up in the Washington Mall and Fabulous Fashions in the Heron Bay Plaza.